It began with a seemingly innocuous scratch while working on the farm.

John Jones was a progressive milk producer who pioneered homegrown maize and doted on his pedigree Holstein-Friesian cows in the Vale of Clwyd.

Since buying Plas Llanynys, a 115-acre unit between Ruthin and Denbigh , with his dad Herbert in 1968, John had established a reputation as a highly competent farmer who believed passionately that food production was a calling and not simply a job.

One Friday evening in 2003 he went to milk his cows in the parlour and everything seem right in the world.

Read More

Cubicle sheds at Plas Llanynys have lain empty since the cows were sold off (Image: Ian Cooper)

Wife Debbie, then a nurse, recalled: “That night he complained of a sore hand and by the following day septicaemia was confirmed.

“On the Sunday he was admitted to Glan Clwyd Hospital and by midnight he was on a life-support machine.

“I was told it had spread to his left and shoulder, and that surgeons would need to amputate to save his life.

“But on Monday morning he died on the operating table with multiple organ failure.”

John Jones was amongst the first to grow his own maize in the Vale of Clwyd

Left with two young sons – Robert, then aged 10, and Tom, seven – Debbie had little alternative but to sell off the cows and machinery. After the dust settled, she was left with 70 acres of land, which were duly rented out to neighbours.

“It was such a shock,” she remembered. “The boys were so young but you just have to carry on. For me it was a steep learning curve, trying to sort out the business John had left.

“I don’t know how we did it, but we managed.”

Read More

End of a dream

For son Tom, he lost not just a father but also his dream. Ever since he can remember, he wanted to follow in his dad’s footsteps, just as he did as a toddler when, dressed in mini overalls, he fed the calves and hitched rides in the tractor.

“I just knew it was what I wanted to do,” said Tom, now 23.

“It’s a cliche, but farming was in my blood. However, for a long time, I stopped thinking about it because it didn’t seem possible.

“We’d lost land and on such a small holding the idea of farming again seemed remote.”

Read More

By the time he reached his teenage years, the fire inside began flickering again. Tom opted to study agriculture at Reaseheath College, Cheshire (“the course was more hands-on than Llysfasi ”) and he began to dream up business ideas.

Tom was inseparable from his father John, who died when he was just seven years-old

Egg demand forecast to rise

On 70 acres, the obvious solution was free-range egg production. Market projections were good - poultry now accounts for nearly half of all the meat bought in the UK.

Moreover, it is estimated that a decision by the UK’s major retailers to source non-cage eggs only from 2025 will take 775m eggs-a-year off supermarket shelves, the shortfall being met by barn and freerange systems.